In the spring I found it very grounding to develop the discipline of writing every ten days about what has been happening under the new lockdown. Hopefully the same will be true this time round as well.

There is little to be cheerful about right now. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospital passed the April peak on Thursday; the number of patients in intensive care will pass the April peak tomorrow. The death rate remains mercifully lower; perhaps those who were most vulnerable to the virus in March are already dead. There are some signs of deceleration. Today the announced weekly average number of infections, at 15,582, was less than yesterday's 15,967, the first day-on-day decrease in this indicator since 29 September (when it fell to 1,540 from 1,551). However since the testing methodology was changed a week ago, it's not a real shift.

In the spring, the lockdown hit on 17 March, and the peak of hospitalisation was reached on 6 April, 20 days later; the peak in intensive care on 8 April, 22 days later; and the peak of fatalities on 12 April, 26 days later. The current lockdown was introduced 17 days ago, so by this time next week, if the pattern is repeated, we should be at around the maximum. Quite probably we have another week of increasing numbers to look forward to. (Yes, I have been tweeting the numbers every day since late April, with a break during the good times in July, in a thread that is now about 200 tweets long.)

When I wrote my last post in this series, ten days ago, museums were still open and I hastily booked a trip to the Royal Library, expecting that this might be my last chance for a while (correctly, as it turned out that they closed last Monday for the duration). I had been to the Royal Library once before, to look at a manuscript back in 1992; they now have a lovely exhibit about the book collections of the Dukes of Burgundy which form the basis of the collection. I brought little U, who does not have much time for books but enjoys a walk, and my Romanian friend C met us there. U took it in her stride, as she usually does.

There is some really gorgeous stuff on display in the Royal Library, and I do recommend a visit once things open up again. The best manuscripts seemed to be collected in a single small well-concealed exhibit space. Just look at this:

That's North Africa from Ptolemy's Geographia, a manuscript from 1482. The two pages shown above are both widely available around the internet, but there is something fantastic about seeing them in their original context, as part of a book. (Click to embiggen.)

Note the dragon in the Libyan desert!

This last weekend was, of course, Halloween, and I brought U into Brussels again, where my generous employers had provided masks for us to hygienically dress up in.

(The little green Android always comes too.)

I took half a morning off on Thursday to visit B, taking advantage of the fact that the rules have not yet prevented us seeing the girls as was the case last time. Basically what has changed is that the residential centre where the girls live now feels on top of the need to ensure sanitised and hygienic conditions for both residents and visitors. In the spring that was not the case, as hospitals were (rightly) getting first dibs on stocks of masks etc. I usually take B out for a drive when I see her; this time we went to the nearby park at Hélécine.

On the one hand, it's all a bit easier to deal with this time, as we've been through it before. On the other, the nights are getting longer rather than shorter, and every couple of days I hear of another friend, colleague or acquaintance who has caught it. I should note also that six weeks ago the virus claimed the life of David Cook, one of my political mentors. It's not over yet, and it won't be for some time.